Menendez recall petition effort can proceed, court rules

A state appellate court ruled Tuesday that the New Jersey secretary of state must accept a citizen petition to recall Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) submitted by a pair of conservative tea party groups, The Star-Ledger reports.

NJ Tea Parties United and the Sussex County Tea Party are seeking to force the Senator's removal because of his support of health-care reform and past votes to increase government spending. Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells last fall rejected a notice from the groups that they planned to begin an effort to recall Menendez. According to state law, the secretary of state must approve a notice before a recall committee can begin collecting signatures on a petition.

Today's ruling opens the door for the recall process to proceed.

After the notice is approved, the committee then must secure the signatures of 25 percent of registered voters of the affected district before a recall election can be held. There were 5.2 million registered voters in November, meaning the committee would have to secure 1.3 million signatures.

Menendez's lawyer had argued that voters do not have the right to recall a U.S. senator under federal law. If he survives the recall attempt, Menendez will come up for reelection in 2012.

BenAMarine....You asked how the Gray Davis recall worked out for California. It netted us a another useless Gov but did keep illegal Aliens from attaining Calif. Drivers Licenses. Had Arnold made sure Prop 187 was reinstated our state deficit would not have gotten to this point.

While 18 states (including New Jersey) allow for the recall of STATE government officials, there is NO RIGHT to recall federal congressmen and senators under the U.S. Constitution. End of story. So in the end, all of this work will be wasted, regardless of whether they have a petition or not. If tea-baggers were smart, they would actually work on something that has a chance to succeed.

If the courts continue to allow the minority to rule then the only wayn to rid the nation of the communist conservative menace will be revolution and the death toll will be extreme indeed. Didn't we learn anything from the past three decades of republican tax cut and spend anyway that their system of stupidity does not work?

Guess what edurfee, it's not just "your" country, it's all of ours. And "we" already took it back with the 2008 election, and ousting, or conservatives just like you. So, what say you, and the rest of your teabaggers, grow up and learn to share like the rest of us did in kindergarten. You can't just make the world the way you want it all the time.

Looks like Conservatives have found yet another way to destroy this country. What a recipe for disaster - tie the whole process up in knots with frivolous recall efforts on all politicians you don't agree with.

If Liberals had used this policy after their landslide victory in 2008 to take out yet more Conservatives who hadn't been up for re-election, the howls and crying from the right would have been deafening.

This tactic is a recipe for disaster - at least Liberals have the brains to recognize that...

Enjoy your shenanigans while you can, Tea Baggers. Your ridiculous quixotic attempts to subvert the American Democracy to fulfill you paranoid and bigoted ends will not be tolerated for much longer. And when you become anything other than an occasional irritant, your nail will be pounded down so hard you'll be looking up at the John Birchers.
1.3 million signatures? You dim bulbs will be lucky to get 1,300. I hope one of you baggers asks for my signature so I can go all, "Commie Acorn Tool of Evil!" on them. That'll be fun.

A great day for the State of NJ and the TEA Party movement. WE do not have to wait until 2012 to change the face of NJ. We need to change the face of the Senate in a similiar way. Good to see that the courts agree with the people.

Well, here we go folks. We, the voters, do not have to wait for designated election cycles to let our Senators/Representatives know we are not happy with their voting on policy. It would only take a couple of these "recalls" around the country to make the others' get the point of listening to the voters wishes!